Trial for Martin Shkreli's lawyer begins

Trial for Martin Shkreli's lawyer begins

Evan Greebel, seen here in a courtroom sketch (second from right), is being charged with conspiracy in connection to former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli (second from left), who is currently sitting in a Sunset Park prison awaiting sentencing after he was found guilty on three of eight charges of fraud during a trial that ended in July. Elizabeth Williams via AP

By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The infamous "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli is currently sitting in a Sunset Park prison awaiting sentencing in January, and his former lawyer Evan Greebel, whose trial started with jury selection in Brooklyn’s federal court on Monday, could join him if the government can prove he was a co-conspirator.

Greebel is a former attorney with Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP and later Kaye Scholer LLP. Greebel advised Shkreli as part of his duties.

Prosecutors alleged that Greebel was an accomplice to fraud involving deals that cost investors in Retrophin, Inc., a drug manufacturing company at one point run by Shkreli, approximately $11 million.

Shkreli was convicted on three of the eight charges brought against him in a separate trial that ended in July. Last week, Greebel sought to dismiss one of the charges that was unsuccessfully brought against Shkreli himself.

There were a number of claims in the motion that centered around the fact that since Shkreli had been found not guilty of the charge, Greebel could not be found as a co-conspirator to the same charge.

However, Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto, who also presided over Shkreli’s case, was not convinced. In her motion to dismiss, she shot down every argument made by Greebel’s lawyers one by one.

“The government ... is not bound to repeat the same case it proffered against Mr. Shkreli; it may present additional or different evidence and may argue that additional individuals conspired with Mr. Greebel,” Matsumoto wrote in her decision. “Indeed, the so-called ‘Retrophin Misappropriation Scheme’ charged in Count Seven alleges the involvement of Co-Conspirator 1, in addition to Mr. Greebel and Mr. Shkreli.”

In trying the case, prosecutors are expected to compel Greebel to provide otherwise privileged information — communications between him and Shkreli, including emails — as part of his testimony. They will allege that Greebel committed fraud in an attempt to keep his client happy.

Emails between Shkreli and Greebel were discussed during Shkreli's trial including one where Shkreli complained to Greebel, "You embarrass me," when he was unable to meet his client’s demands.

Jury selection began on Monday. It took days for prosecutors and defense attorneys to agree on jurors in Shkreli’s trial because of his infamy surrounding his price gouging for AIDS medication and his perceived slight of the rap group Wu Tang Clan.

October 16, 2017 - 2:49pm

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